Gary M. English, head of the Department of Dramatic Arts and
artistic director of Connecticut Repertory Theatre, has been
elected to a two-year term as president of the board of directors
of the University/Resident Theatre Association.

The U/RTA is the nation's oldest and largest consortium of professional,
graduate theater training programs and associated professional
theater companies.

"Gary is an inspired choice to U/RTA into the new millennium,"
says U/RTA Executive Director Scott Steele. "Under his leadership,
the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut,
and its performance arm, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, have
emerged as a model of the interaction between university theater
departments and university-based professional theaters."

English came to UConn in 1988 and has been head of the Department
of Dramatic Arts since 1994. He founded Connecticut Repertory
Theatre as a professional summer theater in 1994 and expanded
it to a year-round theater in 1997. Since then, CRT has won
the New England Theatre Conference Award for contributions to
the Professional Theatre Community, and won three Connecticut
Drama Critics Circle awards out of seven nominations.

English earned a B.F.A. in drama from the University of Arizona
in 1974, and an M.F.A. in stage design from Northwestern University
in 1977.

Before coming to UConn he was on the faculty at the State University
of New York at Geneseo, and Carnegie Mellon University. Last
year he served as interim dean of the School of Fine Arts, after
the death of Dean Robert Gray.

English has worked on many projects with U/RTA during the past
several years, including negotiating the national contract between
university-based theaters and Actors Equity.

He says the U/RTA is seeking to establish ties with the other
major performance unions as well, including the Society of Stage
Directors, United Scenic Artists, and the Dramatists Guild.

"This process is having a national impact on the
way university theater is evolving," he says. "As a result,
professional theater and university theater are becoming much
more integrated and mutually supportive, and
the students graduating from major theater programs
like UConn's are finding much more success after
graduation."